The Day He Smiled
by RuGrimm
Summary: Christmas is the only day N is allowed out of his room...


**Author's Note:**

This story is written as a scene without much plot. That is it's intention and is merely me playing around for a much larger idea I have in mind. There's a subtle warning for a reference to abuse, though it isn't enough to warrant a rating change. As usual, all rights go to Gamefreak, Nintendo, and other owners of the Pokemon franchise. I own none of the characters presented in this piece, and I make this simply for your entertainment. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy.

* * *

Snowflakes fall in a waltz unto the whitened earth.

To all seeing eyes, the sky rests calmly upon the ground, and the two complement each other in a rare peace unbefitting of the castle caught in between.

The castle stands in defiance of the blanket upon it, jutting out from the silent white sheet like a lone cactus in the desert. Even the trees in the courtyard are muted by winter's wicked touch. As a result of the brief passing of languorous clouds, the sun reflects off its painted windows and highlights the melting flakes on glassy surface.

With chin barely higher than the window's sill, N looks upon the quiet world with inquisitive blue eyes. He rests his cheek against the cold, stone slab and looks to the sky before reaching a hand outward to touch a flake through the glass. Marveling at the disintegrating patterns over the colored lens, he manages the faintest of gentle smiles.

He wonders...briefly...what it would be like if he could just...know what it felt like to let the snow melt in his own hands.

"N! N! Come play with us!" Concordia's giggles fill the air like bells of the season, but N doesn't turn to her voice.

Growlithe barks as fiercely as Concordia calls after him, and he thinks he can make out Anthea's voice as well… Though, what does it matter?

"N! Come on! Father Ghetsis never lets you play out of your room! Today's special!"

Anthea runs down the long stretch of hallway, her new, sparkling pink shoes standing in sharp contrast to the blue carpet. She stops just short of her shorter brother, lips pursing into a frown when he doesn't look at her. "Hey! What are you doing, silly?"

"I'm watching the show," he grumbles, and his cheeks tint to a suspicious shade of pink.

Placing her hands on her hips, she leans forward to balance on the balls of her feet. "You mean the snow?"

He doesn't reply, and stubbornly, he turns his head in the opposite direction of his strawberry-haired sister.

"Anthea, why won't N come play with us?" Concordia shuffles over to stand behind her sister.

"'Cause he's being grumpy like Father Ghetsis," she huffs, leaning further toward the younger sibling to poke him in the ribs. "Stop being a dunsparce, N."

"Yeah! Stop being a dunsparce!" chimes the other as she peeks over Anthea's shoulder with a bright smile and even brighter eyes.

Pulling his arm down from the window, he buries his face into the crook of his elbow and squeezes his eyes shut in an attempt to ignore the proddings of his sister. "Go away. Leave me alone…"

"But it's Christmas!" Anthea's face grows stern and the same shade as her hair, and with a huff, she stomps her foot. The sound reverberates down the hall, and Concordia swallows as she clasps her hands in front of her and looks to the floor. "You never get to come out of your room! You should come play with us! There's lots of room to play, and I know all the best places to hide! Promise it! I swear it!"

"No…I don't wanna…"

"N, if you don't play with us, I won't come to your room for a whole _week!_ "

At that, he peeks out over his arm and through the veil of mussed, green bangs. "Nuh-uh…"

" _Yeah-huh,_ " she replies, hands returning to her hips as she looks away defiantly. "And when I come visit ya, I won't bring a Casteliacone!"

Concordia's eyes grow wide, but they're nothing in contrast to the horror that's so clearly displayed in the saucers that are N's eyes.

"No you wouldn't…" he mumbles, and he scrunches up his face in obvious displeasure as he lifts his head only to shrink like a puppy in the presence of a wolf.

"Mhmm." Anthea nods, and when she's about to add onto the sentence…she hesitates at the tears already starting to prick the corners of his eyes. "O-oh…N-n-nnnooo! N! Don't cry! I was just teasing! Oh…"

N sniffles as the salty drops start to slide down his red, little cheeks, and he raises an arm to try and wipe away the evidence of his weakness…but gravity pulls them to the earth much faster than the snow. Chest twitching as he hiccups, he fights the urge to make sound despite the tremble of his bottom lip.

"N…" Concordia's face falls even farther, and she steps up to wrap her arms around the quivering boy, burying her face in a tangle of mossy green hair. "Don't cry…"

Anthea closes her eyes with a defeated sigh as N tries to compose himself, but she doesn't step in to help. Instead, she looks out the window with a blank countenance. N was a gentle child, and though he wasn't much younger than her or Concordia, he had a lot of growing up to do before he'd be ready for what Ghetsis planned. She had always prided herself on being the most mature of her siblings (blood or not), but if she could have spent more time in the sheltered bubble N lived in, she would have enjoyed it.

Then again, she knows that N doesn't live in a bubble. Such a term would be far too romanticized.

To her, it would be no overstatement to say that he lives in a sheltered cage.

Yes, he _is_ the canary in Ghetsis's bird cage.

"You wanted to go outside again, didn't you?" she asks softly as she begins to watch the flakes melt as he did.

N sniffs one last time as he puts his arm down and looks up at her despite his blurry vision. His bangs are stuck to the corners of his eyes whilst snot dribbles down toward the apex of his top lip. "Yeah…" he replies meekly with a swallow.

Anthea nods slowly. "You asked Father again, didn't you?"

"Yeah…"

She closes her eyes and stands in silence, hands clenched at her sides. The three stand there in shared understanding for several moments whilst powder turns to tears on the window's outer surface. Even inside, there's a chill in the air, and a faint breeze runs through the halls and rustles the blue banners hanging from the ceiling. Growlithe, who had been barking and chasing a minccino, trots down towards them and obediently sits at Anthea's side with expectant, pleading eyes.

However, Anthea doesn't bother with the fire pokémon, merely nodding again before opening her eyes to look at the chubby, red face of her brother. "You know…" she begins as she walks toward him and leans to down to his level. "-they say that if you meet a purple delibird on Christmas Day, it'll grant you any one wish you want?"

"Really?!" N's eyes find their light again, and he stands on the tips of his toes in his excitement.

With a slack jaw, Concordia looks at Anthea with the same wonder and hope on the chosen hero's face. Her hands are clasped together and against her chest as she blushes and takes one step forward. "Any wish?!"

"That's right," Anthea giggles with a gentle smile, giving one final nod as she leans closer as if to whisper a secret. "They say that somewhere in this castle…the purple delibird is waiting for someone to find it because it has a super-secret-super-cool gift for the first kid who finds it. But you have to have been GOOD all year round; otherwise…it'll give you a ROCK!"

"I WANT A ROCK!" N gasps, starting to bounce up in down in uncontrollable excitement. He looks between his sisters back and forth, and because of his energy, Growlithe too begins to jump, run, and bark with the same mirth.

Laughing, Anthea straightens as Concordia giggles and avoids Growlithe's spastic sprints around their feet. "W-well, I'm sure that if you wan..want a _rock_ , Delibird will surely give you one."

"You _mean_ it?!" N hops over to Anthea, wrapping his arms around her waist and looking up to her with a life in his eyes that she rarely sees these days.

She hugs him back, placing a kiss on the top of his head and smiling into his hair. "Yes, N. I really do." Letting go of the prince, she pushes his shoulder lightly and winks playfully at him. "Now, come on! Let's go find that delibird!"

"I'm gonna find him first!" Concordia announces, puffing out her chest before sprinting down the hall with Growlithe close at her heels.

"Nuh-uh!"

N follows close behind, giggling like a wild child as he and the red canine weave like strands of DNA up the hall. The cube tied to his necklace is thrown over his shoulder and hovers above his shoulder as he runs as fast he can. It doesn't take much to pass his older sister.

"Hey!" the blonde shouts after him, her legs moving as fast as they can take her (though it clearly isn't enough).

Anthea laughs as she follows them with a spring in her step, hands behind her back as she shakes her head at her siblings' antics. If she could ask the delibird one thing, it would be to have this happiness with her family forever.

The two round the corner with smiles as bright as the glow of an ampharos's tail…and they fade just as quickly as a growlithe's embers.

N and Concordia stand at the turn as giggles die and faces blanch. In an instant, happiness is gone, and it's replaced by a look Anthea knows too well. She doesn't have to guess who's standing there around the bend, and by the time she sees them…her own smile has faded like cheap wallpaper.

"Father Ghetsis…" Anthea breathes, swallowing as she steps forward and almost seems to put herself between him and N. "Hello, sir…"

"Anthea. Concordia. N." He states their names without inflection as if reading them for the first time off a list. His feelings are without color—whiter than the snow. "What is the meaning of running in the hallways?"

"N-nothing. S-sorry, sir," the sisters say in unison, and they both bow to the imposing figure towering above them like a king over peasants rather than a real father.

N stands there with a blank look on his face—a deerling caught by the jaws of a great mightyena. He does this every time he has to look at that cruel eye and the red visor in place of the other. Joy and anything else that could have been considered a personality trait are gone in the blink of an eye, and he shuts down on the spot. Behind him, his beloved canine friend hides between his legs and peers around the right one to look at the robed man.

"N, such childish nonsense is unbecoming of you. One day, you are to be Team Plasma's greatest leader. You must fulfill your mission. Play as you will for now, but do not forget your place." Grip tightening on his staff, he glares down the bridge of his pointed nose, and the longer he stares, the tighter the wrinkles on his aging face become.

Words fail N, and he can only stare and stand and tremble in the wake of this great, malignant force before him. His face is that of one stricken with a frozen fear caused by that of a predator.

Anthea doesn't have to look to know the terror deep within N's marrow. She doesn't have to look to know that he's frozen to the point where his body cannot find the energy required to tremble. She doesn't have to look to know that his eyes are glassed over like the snowy windows and unable to register anything other than the most significant movements.

Ghetsis regards them pensively for a moment, glancing between the three of them before moving to walk away with the billow of his heavy, black robes.

"Father Ghetsis, is there really a purple delibird in the castle?"

Anthea's eyes widen when she hears Concordia's question, and she whips her head around to look at the tall leader who pauses midstep when he too hears her.

"A purple delibird?" Ghetsis glances over his shoulder and the top of his high collar to the shy blonde standing just below his waist.

She looks up at him with a fearful yet hopeful glimmer in her eyes, fingers interwoven and beneath her chin. For the moments of careful, deliberate silence, even the snow outside seems to still. Growlithe whimpers as it buries its nose into the carpet and lays flat against the ground. The world holds its breath with anticipation of the green-haired man's answer, and it loses all the air it had taken when he finally gives it.

"I believe Zinzolin might have one tucked away in his room. You may look if it so pleases you, Little Concordia. You are all my children, after all."

Concordia squeals.

For the first time in Ghetsis's presence, light flickers in N's eyes, and he moves just enough to form the word, "Really?"

Ghetsis doesn't comment further even as Concordia looks to Anthea and barely contains her mirth by rocking side to side and clenching her lips together to prevent any sound from escaping. He walks silently down the hall with his staff thumping against the ground, a staff member appearing seemingly from nowhere to trail behind nervously.

As Concordia embraces N who slowly seems to come back to life, Anthea stares after Ghetsis with a look of utter confusion plastered to her face. For a moment there…she could have sworn…

 _No_. It couldn't have been…

"Come on, Anthea! You heard him! We gotta go see Mr. Zinzolin!" Concordia chirps, pulling on Anthea's arm as N looks from his two sisters and then down the hall where Growlithe rushes down to before barking up a fiery storm.

Hesitantly, Anthea allows herself to be pulled down the hall, shaking off her uncomfortable feelings and walking after her sister and Growlithe again with a half-troubled sigh. She gets to the end of the corridor, smirking as Concordia trips over the corner of the blue rug and barely manages to right herself…but it doesn't take her long to realize the other giggling presence that should have been there.

N walks slowly after them and watches the cube around his neck swing like a pendalum in front of him. His feet move like weights, and the numbness in his hands hasn't quite faded yet.

"N? Aren't you coming?"

"Yeah…" he manages, flashing an unsure smile up at his sisters as he pulls his sleeve down insecurely as if to cover up a poorly hidden secret. "I'm coming."

Anthea nods, but she can't bring herself to smile as N rounds the corner quietly and follows after his sister who runs along without a care in the world. She knows the look in his eyes, and she knows the secrets he thinks he's hiding… But there's nothing she can do to help; at least, there isn't anything she knows of.

She would have wished for N's eternal happiness if the tale she had spun were true.

"Are you okay, N?" she asks quietly.

"I'm 'kay…"

With a glance cast downward, N wrings his hands and tries to shake off the prickling of his skin. He feels this way every time he sees Ghetsis, and on the rare occasion he can shake off this feeling long enough to ask…Well, it makes Father Ghetsis angry. And he doesn't like it when Father Ghetsis gets angry.

The bruises on his neck and soreness of his scalp, usually easily hidden to the eye, are testaments to the source of his fears. However, such things are common, and he doesn't think much of them. It doesn't bother him most days, but he knows that thing he saw—the thing Anthea saw—was wrong…so very…very wrong.

"It's your only day out of your room, N. Please have some fun," murmurs the pink-haired sister, nudging N along.

"Okay…" he breathes, though the grin he forces is about as real as Ghetsis's love for his children.

He tries his best to follow Concordia and Anthea with a smile, and although he manages to enjoy their parade down the halls in search for the purple delibird, he never forgets the image…

To the day he faces him with Reshiram at his side and fire and doubt blazing behind them despite the truth in front of them, he never forgets what he saw on Ghetsis's face.

He never forgets…the subtle smile.


End file.
